Apple releases its first monthly update on supplier working conditions

Apple has updated its Supplier Responsibility page today, providing its first monthly update on the problem of excessive work hours at its supplier factories around the world. According to the update, Apple has managed to get the average work week down to 48 hours per week:

[quote]In February 2012, compliance with the 60-hour work week among 500,000 workers at those suppliers increased to 89 percent, with workers averaging 48 hours per week. That’s a substantial improvement over previous results, but we can do better. We will continue to share our progress by reporting this data on a monthly basis.[/quote]

Apple’s pledged to be a driving force for change in supplier factories while its competitors, often using the same factories for their products, remain depressingly silent. We give Apple a lot of crap on this blog from time to time, but in this case, Apple’s really going above and beyond when compared to the industry standard. Again, the situation isn’t perfect and still needs to go a long way until it’s fixed, but at least Apple’s trying to Think Different and fix the problem. Props where it’s due.